US Navy Surface Force Moves to Offensive Action

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US Navy Moves from Defensive to Offensive: 

Op-Ed by Rear Admiral Thomas S. Rowden, USN, Director, Surface Warfare (N96) Chief of Naval Operations

Jim Kilby

Captain Jim Kilby started laying out our vision for the future direction of surface warfare with “Surface Warfare: Lynchpin of Naval Integrated Air/Missile Defense”, 

 (Navy Capt. James W. Kilby, nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral (lower half). Kilby is currently serving as deputy for ballistic missile defense, AEGIS, Destroyers and Future Surface Combatants, N96F, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C.)

and 

Captain Charlie Williams followed up with 

“Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) – The Heart of Surface Warfare” 

and 

“Increasing Lethality in Anti-Surface Warfare (ASUW)”. 

(Navy Capt. Charles F. Williams, nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral (lower half). Williams is currently serving as deputy for surface ship systems weapons and sensors, N96C, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C.) 

Together with our continuing mastery of land attack and maritime security operations, the three operational thrusts they describe a Surface Force that is moving from a primarily defensive posture to one on the offense. This is an exciting development, and I want to spend a few paragraphs reinforcing their messages.

Surface Warfare must “go on the offensive” in order to enable future power projection operations. I call this “offensive sea control” and it takes into consideration that in future conflict, we may have to fight to get forward, fight through our own lines, and then fight to stay forward. Pieces of ocean will come to be seen as strategic, like islands and ports, and we will offensively “seize” these maritime operating areas to enable further offensive operations. Put another way, no one viewed the amphibious landings in the Pacific in WWII as “defensive”; there was broad understanding that their seizure was offensive and tied to further offensive objectives. It is now so with the manner in which we will exercise sea control.

What does this mean to fleet sailors? We need to master the technology that is coming to the fleet—

• Navy Integrated Fire Control (Counter Air), or NIFC-CA; 
• the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR); 
• the SQQ-89 A(V)15 ASW Combat System; 
• the LCS ASW Mission Module; 
• the introduction of the Griffin missile in the PC class; 
• new classes of Standard Missiles; 
• Rail Gun; 
• Directed Energy. 

We will need to use these systems and then do what sailors always do—figure out ways to employ them that the designers never considered.